


When the Moon hits your Eye

by makingitwork



Series: Bughead Prompts [51]
Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Cheerleader Betty, Childhood Friends, Childhood Sweethearts, F/M, Fluff, One Shot, Soul identifying marks, Soulmarks, Soulmate AU, Soulmates, bughead - Freeform, cheerleader jughead, fluffy fluff, tiniest bit of angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-05
Updated: 2018-11-05
Packaged: 2019-08-19 11:46:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,582
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16534010
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/makingitwork/pseuds/makingitwork
Summary: Betty and Jughead find out they're soulmates when they're five years old.





	When the Moon hits your Eye

**Author's Note:**

> Enjoy!

Betty approaches him on the playground. 

She marches right into the sandbox and pokes the back of his shoulder with a pudgy finger. Jughead turns to look at her; with his big green eyes and hand knitted beanie. It's a bit hot to be wearing a beanie, and his nose scrunches up before he smiles toothily. "Hiya, Betty! Wanna play?" He lifts up his spade in the air. 

But Betty means business. She tightens her ponytail and moves so she's standing in front of Jughead, looking down at him. She reaches down to grab his hand and he lets her; pliantly. There on their palms, are the matching moon symbols. As she presses their hands together; they glow bright and white. Jughead hums interestedly. 

"Cool. What's that?" He asks, and Betty sits down with a thump in her dungarees. 

"They're soulmate marks," she says matter-of-factly, "like moms and dads have. I learnt about 'em yesterday. It means we're soulmates." 

Jughead thinks she sounds smart. He nods; happy to follow Betty anywhere. "What do I have to do?" asks the five year old and Betty purses her lips thoughtfully the way she's see her mom do. 

"You have to be my best friend and kiss me sometimes." She declares.

Jughead leans forward and presses his lips to her cheek. He's all red after, and Betty giggles.

 

When FP comes to pick his son up that day; his heart stops at the matching mark he has with the Cooper girl. 

He scoops his little boy up into his arms; nodding as Jughead rattles off about his day, but he can't stop staring at the Cooper girl. For his son to already have found his soulmate- something that most people don't get in a lifetime, is amazing, of course, but...but already? FP's only just got him and he's destined to be matched to someone else? Hardwired to pick someone else's side over FP's?

He decides to preempt it. 

He smiles warmly at the little blonde girl, and shakes her hand. She ends up clutching his thumb more than anything. "It's nice to meet you..."

"Betty," Jughead supplies, nuzzled into his dad's neck. "She's my best friend." 

"Betty Cooper," FP finishes. 

Betty smiles; all dimples and politeness. "Nice to meet you too, Jughead's dad."

 

Alice, predictably, is angry. 

Her daughter is not going to be paired off with some subpar Jones specimen. She marches over to FP's house, but Jughead opens the door instead. 

He's tiny with fluffy blue hair and big eyes. And he has just the same mark as her little girl. She ends up kneeling there on the doorstep, just looking at him. He doesn't seem like a bad egg. Not with the way he's buried in flannel, with a book tucked under his arm. He's got something clever in his eyes, something that Betty has too. "You're going to treat my girl right," Alice says; voice breaking a little. 

Jughead nods, reaching up to put a thumb in his mouth. "'S'okay, Betty's mom. Betty's really tough." 

Alice isn't sure what that means until she goes to pick up Betty from school. There she sees Betty throw a wooden block right at a group of older boys who were calling Jughead names. She's a little winded by it, actually. 

FP snorts from a little way off. "She's a spitfire, all right," he says. 

Alice can't help herself. 

She smiles. 

 

FP likes to think of himself as an open-minded guy. He's not a homophobe or anything that his old man was, but when Jughead comes home from school, sixteen years old and dumps his rucksack on the sofa and says, "I'm joining the cheerleading squad." FP's not sure what to make of it. 

But he wants to be supportive, of course. It's just when he was in high school, he was on the field, not twirling pompoms and singing cheers. 

He realises rather quickly that it's much more than that. 

Jughead starts coming home covered with sweat, his arms develop a lean muscle and he fills out. It's obviously taxing work, and he develops a core strength that he didn't have before. He starts eating stuff that isn't just trash food, and FP finds himself excited to come and see the first game. He loves football, so he enjoys watching kids like Archie and Reggie devouring the field, but then halftime comes. 

When Betty skips out in a cheerleading uniform, everything suddenly slots into place and he feels a bit dim for not seeing it sooner. The entire squad is made up of girls, aside from Jughead. A few of the kids point and laugh and FP wants to hurt them real bad, but then no one's laughing, because Jughead is lifting and twirling the girls in the air. He's the base of impressive; adrenaline pumping pyramids. 

He and Betty move in perfect sync and he can toss her so high up into the air that she manages all sorts of cartwheels and twists before she lands back in his arms. And they're smiling the whole time; eyes only for each other. 

Archie comes over and hugs them both at the end of their routine, and FP is fiercely proud of his son, and oddly paternal of little Betty Cooper. 

 

Alice has a strict rule that Betty has to keep her door open at all times whenever Jughead is over. 

She's walked in on them kissing more than a few times; and they always leap apart when she clears her throat. 

She's putting some laundry away when she hears it. The tell tale signs of an argument. 

"For god's sakes, Betty! It was one kiss, and I did it to get the book!"

"If it was just a kiss, why wouldn't you tell me about it?"

"Because it was just a kiss! I'd already drunk  _poison_ so I thought why not just go the whole hog? It was a peck. Are you telling me you've never done that?"

A scoff. "No, Juggie, I haven't!"

"Oh my god," there's a bitter laugh, "I  _know_ you're lying. Archie told me about your kiss. Even when there's a chance to make us equals, you  _lie."_

"You have no idea what I'm going through!"

"Because you won't talk to me, Betty!"

"I  _can't_ talk to you!"

There's a wounded sound, and Alice remains frozen where she is in front of the cupboard of spare blankets. "Why not?" Jughead demands, voice hoarse. "I love you, and you love me, so why can't you talk to me about this?" 

Silence. 

Jughead doesn't see her as he storms out of Betty's room, but she sees him. The spitting image of a young FP; tear tracks down his face that he wipes uselessly with his sleeve before turning his back on Alice and going down the stairs. The second the door slams shut, Alice hears her daughter begin to sob. 

She misses them kissing. 

 

They make up two weeks later. She walks into Betty's room late one night, a scold on her lips for her daughter leaving the light on, when she sees the two of them wrapped around each other. She tries not to think about the fact that they're clad in only their underwear, or the fact that she didn't even know Jughead was here (but the open window is a little bit of an indication). Instead, she covers them with a blanket and decides to make sure she always has a supply of condoms ready for them. 

 

FP's never met his soulmate. He probably never will. 

But there was something he never considered. Beneath the wild romance, beneath the sweeping gestures and the thousands of implications at the phrase, he never considered just how...compatible they'd be. Which seems absurd. 

But seeing Betty and Jughead laughing at the same jokes in a comedy show- completing crosswords together. Seeing them smiling and enjoying the other's company when they're doing absolutely nothing at all, there's a...there's something there. Something he wishes he had. 

He finds the wedding ring one summer when Jughead's back from college. He doesn't say anything about it, just smiles and waits. 

 

Betty is a brutal editor. 

She drags Jughead through the wringer every time she looks through his work. She has an unending list of criticisms, and after she's done, she always feels terrible. But Jughead just looks up at her with a dopey grin and reaches back for his laptop. 

"Maybe," he offers, non-commitally, every time. 

Betty's heart never fails to swoon in relief. He knows when to take her seriously, and when to realise she's being a harmless, obsessive critic. 

 

Jughead is a stubborn bastard. 

He'll argue over tiny things and spend his time getting ridiculously passionate for causes much too large to be fixed by a single person. He curls in on himself and away from Betty, he pushes everyone away. He says things he instantly wishes he could take back. 

After one such outburst, Betty hauls him in for a hug. "I love you," she whispers into the crook of his neck, feeling him melt against her. "I understand." 

He breathes in a stuttering sigh of relief and holds her close. She gets him. She gets when he winds himself up into a knot, and she doesn't run away. Regardless of the mark on their hands, he's certain he was always in love with the girl in the sandbox, with the big blue eyes.

 

And she's happy to wear his ring. 

**Author's Note:**

> Comment, lovelies!  
> mwah  
> x


End file.
